Macron expects Trump to reverse decision on Paris accord

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped his American counterpart Donald Trump would reverse his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord.

“Donald Trump listened to me, he understood the meaning of my approach, including the link between global warming and terrorism. He told me that he would try to find a solution in the coming months,” Macron told the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday.

“We spoke in detail about the things that could make him come back to the Paris accord.

“It is important to maintain the dialogue so that the US can eventually reintegrate the field of action against global warming and play the game of multilateralism,” said Macron, who pleaded for continued talks with Washington despite divergence over the climate issue.

During his first visit to Paris last week, Trump hinted at a possible change in his position over the Paris climate accord from which he pulled out weeks ago.

“Something could happen with respect to the Paris accord, let’s see what happens,” Macron said.

“We will talk about that over the coming period of time and if it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn’t, that’ll be okay too,” he added.

Agreed by 195 member economies which attended the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, the accord aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a way to keep the rise in the average temperature no higher than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.